Það er langt síðan dyrasíminn virkaði svona vel.

It has been a long time since the intercom worked this well.

Breakdown of Það er langt síðan dyrasíminn virkaði svona vel.

• vera: to be
• það: it
• svona: so
• vel: well

Questions & Answers about Það er langt síðan dyrasíminn virkaði svona vel.

What does Það er langt síðan ... actually mean as a whole?

It is a very common Icelandic time expression meaning It has been a long time since ...

So:

Það er langt síðan dyrasíminn virkaði svona vel.

means the same idea as It’s been a long time since the intercom worked this well.

Grammatically, the pattern is:

Það er langt síðan + past clause

You should learn það er langt síðan as a set phrase, because it does not translate word-for-word in a perfectly natural way.

Why is það at the beginning if it does not seem to refer to anything?

Here það is a dummy or expletive subject, like English it in sentences such as It is raining or It has been a long time.

It does not point to a specific thing. Icelandic often uses það in this kind of impersonal expression just because the sentence needs a grammatical subject.

So in this sentence, það is there for structure, not for concrete meaning.

Why is it langt and not langur or lengi?